Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!dino!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!math.lsa.umich.edu!hyc From: hyc@math.lsa.umich.edu (Howard Chu) Newsgroups: comp.sys.laptops Subject: Re: Unix laptops Message-ID: <10669@stag.math.lsa.umich.edu> Date: 16 Jan 90 22:22:14 GMT References: Sender: news@math.lsa.umich.edu Reply-To: hyc@math.lsa.umich.edu (Howard Chu) Distribution: comp Organization: University of Michigan Math Dept., Ann Arbor Lines: 62 UUCP-Path: {mailrus,umix}!um-math!hyc In article pedz@pedz.austin.ibm.com (Perry Smith) writes: >I've got the wait and see approach to buying a computer because of the >fact that with each year the prices drop and the power goes up plus >the fact that I have no real persoanl use for one. I am curious about >the current state of the machines though. Wow. My home computer is about 5 feet from my bed. Takes me about two seconds and one handspring to reach it. I can't imagine life without a personal machine. (I've done it tho [gasp!!], camping & such. We're talking genuine withdrawal here...) Ok, 'nuff idle chatter... > >If we totally disrequard price, is there a laptop which runs Unix in a >true multi-process environment? I'd like to have BSD Unix (or mach). Would be nice, doesn't sound too unreasonable. >I'd like to be battery powered although I could live with being >severly hampered in battery mode if I could have all the power I >needed once I got to a place where I could plug it in. As far as >power, of course I'd like to have as much as possible. I think 5 mips >would be plenty though. I'd also like to have an expandable disk >system where I could have a limited amount of disk in battery mode and >a huge amount of disk when I finally got back home. I don't expect >all the disk to be housed in the laptop. Unix by itself is big plus I >like to use emacs and TeX and some other huge packages so I need quite >a bit of disk space. But I don't need this when I'm sitting on a >plane (for example). You can get all of this in an Atari ST. 'Course, I don't think you'd want to lug a few megabytes of TeX font files everywhere you went, but ya never know. You can run TeX and GNU emacs tho (the real thing, not just a lobotomized micro-version designed to fit into machines with 64K address spaces... }-) }-) }-), and if you got the hacking urge whilst traveling, gcc and friends as well. The just-passed-FCC-certification-will-be-released-Real-Soon-Now Atari STacy is slated to come in configurations with 2 and 4 Meg RAM, stock, and a 40M internal hard drive. You can hook up to SCSI whenever you're home tho, and eat as much disk as you want then... > >Oh, while I'm blowing smoke rings -- I'd like eventually to be able to >run some sort of X windows or similar package. This is actually not a >big deal since emacs gives me all the environment I need. The >advantage of emacs as an X client though are sorta neat and I'd love >to be able to have those capabilities as well. Way back in the days of X10, all I ever did with X was use Xterm and Xtrek. I hear that Xrn and Xmh are pretty cool these days, but I haven't tried 'em yet. In any case, there's UnixWindows for multiple terminal window stuff, and things like Uniterm for VT220/Tek4010 emulation, and a helluva lot of games... > >Has the technology even approached such a beast? If so, who makes it >and how much is it going to set me back? (I'm willing to go pretty >high if I really like what I see.) This may not be everything you're looking for, but it doesn't seem too far short of the mark. Given the way technology advances, it's probably not even as long as a year away. -- -=- PrayerMail: Send 100Mbits to holyghost@father.son[127.0.0.1] and You Too can have a Personal Electronic Relationship with God!